[Marxism] Studying philosophy at the New School

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Haines Brown wrote:
> I'll try to get my hands on the Chronicle article, but I wonder about
> Louis' comment. In what paradise did he live where it was conceivable
> that Marx, Hegel and Freud might be taught?  
> 
I was at university in London in the mid-1970s and managed to get my 
B.Sc. in sociology by mainly attending courses that were explicitly 
Marxist in content and/or taught by Marxists.

Among other things I attended a one-semester course entitled 
"Kant-Hegel, Marx", taught by a Hegelian Marxist. I also attended a two 
semester course on "Political Sociology", where the first semester dealt 
with the Marxist theory of the state and the second semester dealt with 
practical examples - the English Revolution, the French Revolution, the 
Paris Commune, the 1905 and 1917 Russian Revolutions, the German 
Revolution 1918-21, the General Strike in Britain, Spain 1936, Hungary 
1956 etc. Another course was a "Introduction to Marxist Political 
Economy", taught by an Auton0omist Marxist - "History of Economic 
Thought" dealt primarily with the Classical Political Economy - I missed 
most of the second semester of that one (the part that dealt with 
neo-classical economics) because we were occupying the college admin - 
theory and practice you could say.

Other courses were "Political Anthropology" taught by an Althusserian, 
"Theory of Knowledge" taught by another Althusserian - both were luckily 
much broader than Althusser but they inoculated me against faddish 
philosophical trends in academia. I also attended courses on "Theories 
of Development", taught by a Marxist historian and did supplementary 
courses on topics like the Chinese Revolution and the British Road to 
Socialism as well as a few others that have faded in my memory.

> Does anyone know of any course at any time in any economics department
> that has Marx in its title or course description? Are there absolutely
> no universities in the US (or anywhere, for that matter?) that now teach
> an economics, philosophy or history course that is explicitly Marxist?   
> 
I know of nowhere today. and here in germany when tenured professors of 
Marxist or even vaguely liberal left-wing orientation retire they are 
not being replaced.

I sometimes think that the mid-1970s was the best time for studying if 
you wanted to gain a thorough grounding in Marxist theory - not that 
it's ever been particuolarly useful to me in getting a job - but it's 
proved invaluable in my political work!

Einde O'Callaghan

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